Thursday, February 28, 2013

Well it
will be a hard job following the exuberant Greedybread’s hosting of Sweet New Zealand but I’m
going to try, although I think I may pale in comparison.

If it’s
all new to you, allow me to explain.Sweet New Zealand is a monthly blogging
event created by Alessandra Zecchini and
it really is very simple so you have no excuse not to join in, meet new
friends and hang out in the kitchen at this party.

Rules:

Sweet New Zealand is open to all food bloggers living in New
Zealand (even if you are not a New Zealander), as well as all Kiwi food bloggers
who live overseas.

You can enter with
anything sweet - cakes, cookies,
desserts, or even drinks.

You can submit as
many entries as you like and they don't have to be new blog posts.

Your entry must
contain the phrase Sweet New Zealand
and have the Sweet New Zealand badge
(you can copy and save the one on this page).

Your entry must link
to the host (me!) and to this post. If you're submitting an old post remember
to update it with the phrase, badge and links.

Enter now:

Email me at flatwhite233(at)xtra(dot)co(dot)nz (yes, I love coffee!) before the 29
March with:

Your name

Your blog name

A link to your blog

A link to the blog
post you're entering

A photo from the
post

The name of the recipe and a brief description

If you
haven’t yet sighted February’s Sweet NZ delights
yet, head over to Greedybread, or check out previous months on Alessandra’s recap page - but don’t forget to come back to submit your entry for this month.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Summer, and another two plum trees laden
with fruit. Somehow, despite best
efforts, I always manage to dribble the dark stain down my front. Plum tree number one you can do that with;
the fruit is sweet enough to pluck straight from the tree. The fruit from the other tree ripens a little
later and needs the most help with sugar.
Though the flesh is just sweet, the skin retains a sourness that makes
it less edible than its early bird neighbour.

As in previous years, I’ve taken the plums
and bottled plum & vanilla jam in little jars (and dropped teaspoonfuls
straight into my mouth). I’ve showered
friends and neighbours with bags of the fruit and I still have some left on the
tree. Time is running out but I have plans to poach them, sprinkle a streusel mix
on top, bake them and freeze so I can recall this long summer when it is chilly.
Let’s hope life quietens down just
enough to allow me to do this.

For now though, I’m kind of smitten with
this cake. I love the texture and taste of
ground almonds in cakes. There’s a dense
richness that’s not heavy but seems to complement the weight of the plums
suspended in the batter.

The plums do drop down into the cake during
cooking, so I just I flip the cake over when it is baked and use the bottom as
the top. It shows off the plums nicely
with a smooth, flat surface

I made this for our first book club of the
year (and this year I hope to share with you our exciting reading months ahead)
and promised I would post it. A little
late but here it is.

Captured taking a shot with my little point & shoot

Plum, almond and orange cake

200g butter, softened

200g caster sugar

25g vanilla sugar*

4 eggs

150 self-raising flour

70g ground almonds

zest of 1 orange

2 tbsp milk, at room temperature

approximately 5-6 plums, sliced (enough to
cover the top of the cake)

*If
you don’t have vanilla sugar to hand, just use a total of 225g caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 21cm
cake tin.

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and
fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time
(beat well before adding the next one).
One of the tips my dad gave me was to add a tablespoon of flour (from
the ingredients list) to the mix if it looks like it may separate at this stage.

Sift in the remaining flour and fold in
with a large metal spoon. Gently mix in
the ground almonds, orange zest and milk until just incorporated.

Place the sliced plums on the top of the
cake. Don’t worry too much about their appearance
as the plums will sink and it will be a total waste of your efforts. As I said above, for a more attractive cake, turn
the finished cake bottom side up where most of the plums will have plunged.

Bake for approximately 1 hour. A skewer inserted in the middle should come
out clean and the cake should spring back when you push lightly with your
fingertips. If the top of the cake
browns too much during cooking time, cover with tin foil (don’t put it directly
on cake, make a small dome shape over the cake tin).

Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes
then carefully remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

This is the second time I have made this
cake in as many weeks.The first was a
way to cope with being back at work after a long, summer break.A touch of sweetness as we attempted to clear a backlog of emails; nudge oneself back into focus every so often and remember what our passwords were. Yes, the return to work needs a
gentle ease-in, no hard or stupid questions please, my withering look is not on leave now either.Good thing there are a few public holidays
to shorten our first few weeks.

It’s worth buying the more expensive Medjool dates for this cake for they are softer and lusher.I used half Medjool and half packaged pitted
dates both times.

I left the cake un-iced on both occasions.The original recipe uses a cream cheese icing or
suggested a lemon icing but I found it worked well enough without either and
first day back at work, there was no time to make icing of any sort. It was hard enough just getting my act together to get out the door on time.

First time around I was pretty amazed when Bill handed
me a slice on which he'd lathered a dollop of coconut yoghurt on top.It was truly a winning combination with the coconut totally complementing and enhancing the dates and spiciness of the cake.

For this one, I've used coconut yoghurt and swirled in some homemade lemon
curd (recipe here).Except in today’s
heat the swirl spun out of control
and merged into the yoghurt during the photo shoot (temperamental model I'd say).

The recipe comes from Catherine Bell in the
wonderful A Treasury of New Zealand
Baking.The yoghurt I used was Coconuts from The Collective (and yes, there is an extra "s" in their naming of the yoghurt).

Date Cake with Lemon Curd & Coconut Yoghurt

­

250g pitted dates, chopped

1 teaspoon baking soda

125ml boiling water

110g butter, softened

110g caster sugar

finely grated zest of 1 lemon

1 egg

150g standard flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon mixed spice

Put the dates and baking soda in a small
bowl, pour in the boiling water and mix together briefly with a spoon.Leave for 30 minutes to cool.

Preheat oven to 150°C.Grease and line a 20cm round or square cake
tin with baking paper.

In a cake mixer, cream the butter, sugar
and lemon zest together until pale and creamy.Add the egg and beat well.

Sift the flour, baking powder and mixed
spice into a bowl ensuring well combined.Add half of this dry mix, along with half of the date mix to the creamed ingredients.Fold
in gently until combined and repeat with the remainder.

Place the mix into the prepared tin and
bake for approximately 45 minutes – test the centre with a skewer which should
come out clean.

Cool in the tin for 5 minutes then remove
to a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve with the lemon curd & coconut yoghurt below
or top with a lemon icing.

Lemon Curd & Coconut Yoghurt

For each slice of cake, mix 2 tablespoons
of coconut ­yoghurt with ½ tablespoon of lemon curd swirled in.Garnish with lemon zest and serve either on
the plate or in a little dish beside the cake.